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Wednesday, September 11, 2013

It's not easy to get a trainer's license in some (or most) states

Recently a question came up at RaceHorseTrainers.com, "I would like to know how to get the license for race horse trainer in Florida. I have not found any information about this."

So I set about getting the information. It's a little easier if you show up in person at the racing commission office at the track in Florida during a live racing meet. The office will be staffed at that time and ready to provide and process applications.

Fingerprints are required. You can get fingerprints taken at the local police station, or some cities may have private services listed in the yellow pages.

If you have any kind of criminal background, you will be called to give details about that. If you have been convicted of a felony, you will not get a trainer's license.

If you have never had a trainer's license before, you will have to take some form of test, and in our experience this testing will vary from state to state. You must inquire at the state racing commission office to get testing details. Racing Commission contact details can be found at OwnerView.com.

You may be wondering about the reason for the stringent requirements of the background check and extensive information required on the trainer license application. This came about when racetracks started hosting casino style gambling. We believe that with the spread of casino gambling at racetracks, the rules of racing and licensing requirements must be standardized nationally.

3 comments:

Thank you for the information. Just a little error, you mentioned that you cannot get a trainer's license in Florida if you have a felony. Florida Department of Business Regulations can still approve your application depending on how long ago is the conviction, plus it's a case by case situation which they review, the same situation applies for contractor licensing.

Thanks for that correction. Also please note that during a Florida racing meet, the stable office will take your fingerprints - you don't have to go to the police station or private business to get them done unless you're applying from out of state and have not had your fingerprints on file in Florida for the last 5 years. Supposedly some racing states will share fingerprints if you apply for a license through Racing Commissioners Intl (RCI) - but not always. So you can see how complicated licensing is and it really should be nationally regulated.

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